- Evoking Sound: The Choral Rehearsal, Vol. 2
- The Anatomy of Conducting
- Innisfree:
Choral Music of Hope, Dreams, and Living - Listen!
- Evoking Sound-The Choral Rehearsal
- Evoking Sound: The Choral Warm-Up Modal Exercises
- Evoking Sound-The Choral Conductor's Aural Tutor
- Teaching Music through Performance in Choir Vol. 1
- Teaching Music through Performance in Choir Vol. 2
- Evoking Sound-The Choral Warm-up
- Evoking Sound-The Choral Warm-up, Teaching and Rehearsal Cards
- The Musician's Walk
- The Musician's Spirit
- The Musician's Soul
- The Musician's Soul: Meditations
- Learn Conducting Technique with the Swiss Exercise Ball
- Ear Training Immersion Exercises for Choirs
- Choral Ensemble Intonation: Method, Procedures, and Exercises
- Evoking Sound VHS: Body Mapping Principles and Basic Conducting Technique
- Evoking Sound
- The Singer's Ego by Lynn Eustis, Foreword by James Jordan
- Achieving Choral Blend Through Standing Position
- The Structures and Movement of Breathing
James Jordan
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Contact James Jordan
Listen to James Jordan's Podcast with Roger Ames
James Jordan is recognized and praised from many quarters in the musical world as one of the nations preeminent conductors, writers, and innovators in choral music. He has been called a "visionary" by The Choral Journal. His career and publications have been devoted to innovative educational changes in the choral art that have been embraced around the world. A master teacher, Dr. Jordan's pioneering writing and research concerning the use of Laban Movement Analysis for the teaching of conducting and movement to children has dramatically changed teaching in both those disciplines. Called the "Father of the Case Study," he was the first researcher to bring forward the idea of the case study as a viable and valuable form of research for the training and education of teachers.
One of the country's most prolific writers on the subjects of the philosophy of music making and choral teaching, he has produced ten major textbooks and several choral series bearing his name. He has contributed to four other textbooks. In 2005, four new books authored by him were published: Learn to Conduct Using the Swiss Exercise Ball, Ear Training Immersion Exercises for Choirs (book, CD, and Singer's Edition), The Choral Warm-Up (book, CD, and Accompanist Supplement), and The Musician's Walk (all published with GIA Publications, Chicago). His books on the subject of Vocal Technique for Choirs are considered as essential for the education of conductors around the world. His choral conducting book, Evoking Sound, was named as a "must read" list of six books by The Choral Journal. His text, Ear training Immersion Exercises for Choirs, details the first comprehensive approach toward aural literacy for choirs using Harmonic Immersion Solfege™ and a unique system of score analysis that focuses upon what is aurally perceived by the choir. His trilogy of books, The Musician's Soul (GIA, 2000), The Musician's Spirit (GIA, 2002), and most recently The Musician's Walk (2005), have been acclaimed by both instrumental and choral conductors alike and have been credited with beginning a transformation on how music is taught both in ensembles and the classroom through a process of humanizing and loving. His latest book, The Choral Conductor's Aural Tutor (GIA, 2006), is the first text to teach conductors to hear subtle texture changes based upon changes in vocal technique within an ensemble. Dr. Jordan also serves as Executive Editor of the Evoking Sound Choral Series, published by GIA Publications in Chicago. This series presents choral literature at the highest levels for high school and college choirs. In addition to new compositions by America's finest composers, the series also presents new editions of standard choral repertoire, edited with singers in mind. Also unique to this series are solfege editions that utilize Jordan's groundbreaking approach to the use of solfege in choral ensembles that uses accurate aural analysis as the basis of the approach.Dr. Jordan teaches and conducts at Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, New Jersey, one of the foremost centers for the study and performance of choral music in the world, where he is an associate professor of conducting and senior conductor. For the past twelve years, he has served as conductor of The Westminster Chapel Choir. In the fall of 2004, he founded one of Westminster's highly select touring choirs and performing choirs, The Westminster Williamson Voices. This choir's mission is not only choral performance and recording at the highest levels, but to serve as an ensemble that employs unique and cutting-edge approaches to the choral rehearsal and choral performance. The ensemble also has at its center a significant outreach to the musical world through workshops and residencies. The ensemble specializes in premiere significant contributions to the choral literature. The choir has championed the new works of Jackson Hill, Roger Ames, Tarik O'Regan, Gerald Custer, and Brian Schmidt. The ensemble has also collaborated in performances with The Spiral Q Puppet Theater (Philadelphia) and Archedream Dance Theater (www.archedream.com). The Westminster Williamson Voices is also involved in educational recordings of significant educational choral literature for the next five years for GIA Publications, which will culminate in the recording of approximately one hundred essential pieces of choral literature. The first recording in that series, Teaching Music through Performance in Choir, Volume 1, Levels 1–3 (GIA CD-650), was released in February 2006. During the 2004–05 academic year, Dr. Jordan was also Visiting Distinguished Professor of Music Education at West Chester State University.
Dr. Jordan has studied and has had the unique privilege of studying with several of the landmark teachers of the twentieth century. He was a student of Elaine Brown, Wilhelm Ehmann and Frauke Haasemann. He completed his Ph.D. in the psychology of music under Edwin E. Gordon.
James Jordan has been the recipient of many awards for his contributions to the profession. He was named as Distinguished Choral Scholar at The University of Alberta. He was made an honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia in 2002 at Florida State University. Composer Morten Lauridsen dedicated a movement of his acclaimed Mid-Winter Songs to him.
Education
Bachelor of Music: Susuquehanna University, Master of Music (Choral Conducting): Temple University, Doctor of Philosophy (Psychology of Music): Temple University, Additional Professional Study
Laban Institute of Movement Studies - New York, Bucknell University (Psychology), Laudinella Kulturzentrum: Conducting Studio Wilhelm Ehmann, Conducting and Choral Music Studies
Elaine Brown
Wilhelm Ehmann
Frauke Haasemann
Gail B. Poch
Janet Yamron
Howard Swan
Volker Hempfling
Sabine Horstmann
Welfard Lauber
Psychology of Music
Edwin E. Gordon (Ph.D. Dissertation Advisor)